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Melissa Avrin died of a heart attack last year at the age of 19. The event was induced by bulimia, which she suffered from for about one-third of her much-too-short life.
Not long after her passing, Melissa’s mother, Judy, found her daughter’s journal. She was inspired by one of the entries:
“Someday …
I’ll eat breakfast.
I’ll keep a job for more than 3 weeks.
I’ll have a boyfriend for more than 10 days.
I’ll love someone.
I’ll travel wherever I want.
I’ll make my family proud.
I’ll make a movie that changes lives.”
Judy, a 56-year-old library coordinator, has now almost completed a film called Someday Melissa, which the New York Times describes as Ms. Avrin’s “salve, distraction and cause — a way to get the word out to other families grappling with eating disorders that they are not alone.”
She’s worked together with 27-year-old filmmaker Jeffrey Cobelli to bring her family’s experience to the screen, as well as important information from experts, like the fact that eating disorders “have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.”
I’m so sorry for Ms. Avrin’s loss, but proud of her for channeling her grief into a worthy and compassionate project. She hopes to have Someday Melissa ready in time for summer film festivals, in effort to secure the film a wider release. Learn more at somedaymelissa.com.
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That is so cool. Not that her daughter died, obviously, but that she found this incredible outlet for her emotions in a way that is a tribute to her daughter. Kudos to her.
I had an interesting conversation with my aunt (88yrs old) about how things change through time. Some of the things she never heard about until she was fifty were anorexia,bulimia and teen suicide. I think we can blame the fashion industry as part of the problem.
I’d put the blame on more emphasis on the self, and on a previous culture that did not talk about imperfections or embarrassing things.
Teen pregnancy always existed – the girls just used to ‘go away to help a sick aunt, and then bring an orphaned baby back for their family to raise’. How many teenagers dead of suicide or eating disorders were explained away as something else? How many eating disorders were ignored or rationalized in some other way?
I DO believe that numbers have gone up, but I also believe that the time in which they didn’t exist was merely a time when such stories NEVER left the family.
I agree with Kai on this where ugliness simply wasn’t mentioned not to mention the entire world wasn’t hooked up to hear about every teen who dies of an eating disorder or who gets sent away with pregnancy. My old school still had a standard policy where if you get pregnant when you start to show it you have to leave.